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Straight Time
- 122 statements
- 22 feature instances
- 3 referencing feature instances
| Straight Time | type |
TVTItem | |
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Straight Time | |
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StraightTime | |
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Straight Time is a 1978 neo-noir crime drama directed by Ulu Grossbard and starring Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh, and Kathy Bates. The film was adapted from the novel No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker; Bunker co-wrote the script alongside Jeffrey Boam, Alvin Sargent, and an uncredited Michael Mann.Max Dembo (Hoffman) is a career criminal who has just been paroled after a six-year stint in prison. Although he's saddled with Earl Frank (Walsh), a boorish and condescending parole officer, Max is able to land a job working at a cannery and even manages to hook up with Jenny Mercer (Russell), an employment agency secretary sympathetic to Max's plight. However, Earl's abuse gradually pushes Max to a breaking point, and he eventually snaps and goes on a robbery spree throughout Los Angeles, aided by his fellow ex-cons Jerry Schue (Stanton) and Willy Darin (Busey). | |
| Straight Time | fetched |
2024-04-28T22:33:21Z | |
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2024-04-28T22:33:21Z | |
| Straight Time | processingComment |
Dropped link to AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to NiceGirl: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN | |
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AdaptationalPersonalityChange | |
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NiceGirl | |
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DBTropes | |
| Straight Time / int_127fc252 | type |
Creator Cameo | |
| Straight Time / int_127fc252 | comment |
Creator Cameo: Edward Bunker also appears as Mickey, a criminal who gives Max information about a poker game to rob. | |
| Straight Time / int_127fc252 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_33d5b7f2 | type |
Adapted Out | |
| Straight Time / int_33d5b7f2 | comment |
Adapted Out: L&L Red and Aaron Billings. Augie Morales technically doesn't qualify, but only because he's briefly mentioned at one point. | |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_4783acfa | type |
Bait the Dog | |
| Straight Time / int_4783acfa | comment |
Bait the Dog: Max. The first half of the film portrays him as a gentle, shy man and a victim of bad luck and circumstances. However, after he snaps, it becomes increasingly clear that he's prone to extreme acts of violence and that he has a very nasty temper. | |
| Straight Time / int_4783acfa | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_4e3d253b | type |
Downer Ending | |
| Straight Time / int_4e3d253b | comment |
Downer Ending: Jerry is shot by the police, and Max kills Willy for abandoning them. Jenny subsequently abandons him after being disgusted at his violent ways, and Max resigns himself to being a fugitive and his eventual capture. | |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_51300dbf | type |
Fat Bastard | |
| Straight Time / int_51300dbf | comment |
Fat Bastard: Frank is overweight and a sleazy Jerkass to the core. Willy is out of shape and mildly overweight, and he's a criminal, though nowhere near as bad as the rest of the cast. | |
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| Straight Time / int_537dd8fe | type |
Affably Evil | |
| Straight Time / int_537dd8fe | comment |
Affably Evil: Max is an amiable, shy man who comes across as almost gentle in the first half of the film. However, after he reverts to crime, it becomes increasingly clear that he's a selfish, violent thug all the same. Jerry is a friendly guy, but he's still an unrepentant criminal who eagerly returns to a life of crime in spite of having a comfortable life and a legitimate job. Willy is jovial to a fault and a loving father, but he's unstable and very easily susceptible to bad influences, though he's nowhere near as bad as Max and Jerry. | |
| Straight Time / int_537dd8fe | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_603f1a80 | type |
Pragmatic Adaptation | |
| Straight Time / int_603f1a80 | comment |
Pragmatic Adaptation: The film excises several of the multitude of characters from No Beast So Fierce, adapts out many of Max's more unsavory traits from the novel to make him more sympathetic, and gives Jenny a larger role in the narrative so the film can have a way to show Max's thought process and internal workings without the first person narration the novel had. | |
| Straight Time / int_603f1a80 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_63b02752 | type |
Hair-Trigger Temper | |
| Straight Time / int_63b02752 | comment |
Hair-Trigger Temper: Max is prone to violent outbursts whenever he gets angry, and responds to most slights against him by beating the living hell out of the offender. | |
| Straight Time / int_63b02752 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_82a64c4b | type |
Adaptational Nice Guy | |
| Straight Time / int_82a64c4b | comment |
As mentioned above in Adaptational Nice Guy, Max, who is much more timid and amiable than his book counterpart. | |
| Straight Time / int_82a64c4b | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_898ff050 | type |
Villain Protagonist | |
| Straight Time / int_898ff050 | comment |
Villain Protagonist: Max, after he snaps and reverts back to crime. | |
| Straight Time / int_898ff050 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_8cb1a369 | type |
Took a Level in Jerkass | |
| Straight Time / int_8cb1a369 | comment |
Took a Level in Jerkass: Once Max returns to crime, he becomes increasingly vicious and short-tempered. Of course, it's less that he Took A Level in Jerkass and more that he returned to form. | |
| Straight Time / int_8cb1a369 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_8ed5c6e4 | type |
Asshole Victim | |
| Straight Time / int_8ed5c6e4 | comment |
Asshole Victim: It's very hard to feel bad when Max hands Frank a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and publicly humiliates him after behaving like an asshole the entire film. | |
| Straight Time / int_8ed5c6e4 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_a1d48853 | type |
Stupid Crooks | |
| Straight Time / int_a1d48853 | comment |
Stupid Crooks: Most of the criminals in the film prove to be fairly incompetent and have fairly poor impulse control. Manny and Willy are incompetent morons, and Max's impulsiveness winds up making him a liability because he takes long enough that the police are able to arrive. Jerry somewhat averts this, but he still returns to crime out of sheer boredom in spite of having a very comfortable life. | |
| Straight Time / int_a1d48853 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_a3eea2ea | type |
Cop Killer | |
| Straight Time / int_a3eea2ea | comment |
Cop Killer: Max guns down a police officer during the botched jewelry store heist. | |
| Straight Time / int_a3eea2ea | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_a70223 | type |
Karma Houdini | |
| Straight Time / int_a70223 | comment |
Karma Houdini: Subverted. Max is able to evade the police and escapes punishment for the robberies and killing Willy, but Jenny leaves him and it's heavily implied he'll be captured or even killed by the police. | |
| Straight Time / int_a70223 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Straight Time / int_a70223 | featureConfidence |
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| Straight Time / int_a91078ea | type |
Adaptational Jerkass | |
| Straight Time / int_a91078ea | comment |
Adaptational Jerkass: In the novel, Joseph Rosenthal was a self-righteous Jerkass, but seemed to genuinely believe in his job and that he was doing the right thing. Here, Earl Frank is a controlling, sadistic Slimeball who deeply enjoys the power he has over Max and making him suffer. However, Frank lacks Rosenthal's worst moment, where he left Max locked up in the county jail for three weeks so he could go on vacation; instead, Frank "only" leaves Max locked up for a week because he was caught up with work. Jerry Schue's motives for turning back to crime are much more selfish here. While in the book he turned back to crime to pay for his wife's cancer treatments, here he does it out of sheer boredom with his new suburban lifestyle. | |
| Straight Time / int_a91078ea | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_b8e3f20a | type |
Demoted to Extra | |
| Straight Time / int_b8e3f20a | comment |
Demoted to Extra: Augie Morales was a prominent supporting character in the novel, but here he's only mentioned once and has already been imprisoned prior to the events of the film. Abe Meyers and Johnny Taormina's equivalent character Mickey is a minor character, whereas Meyers and Taormina were consistent presences throughout the original novel. | |
| Straight Time / int_b8e3f20a | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_d001c42c | type |
Anti-Villain | |
| Straight Time / int_d001c42c | comment |
Anti-Villain: Max. He genuinely tries to go straight, he's a loyal friend even if he's something of a bad influence, and he genuinely loves Jenny, but he's also a violent criminal perfectly willing to resort to murder. | |
| Straight Time / int_d001c42c | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
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| Straight Time / int_d93c5989 | type |
Stepford Suburbia | |
| Straight Time / int_d93c5989 | comment |
Stepford Suburbia: Jerry abandons his comfortable middle class lifestyle to return to crime because he's bored out of his mind and feels trapped in his suburban lifestyle. | |
| Straight Time / int_d93c5989 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_e4965307 | type |
Composite Character | |
| Straight Time / int_e4965307 | comment |
Composite Character: Abe Meyers and Johnny Taormina are combined into a single character, Mickey. It also qualifies as Demoted to Extra, as Mickey only appears for a single scene whereas Meyers and Taormina were consistent presences throughout the novel. | |
| Straight Time / int_e4965307 | featureApplicability |
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| Straight Time / int_e4965307 | featureConfidence |
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| Straight Time | hasFeature |
Straight Time / int_e4965307 | |
| Straight Time / int_eb8ec7c8 | type |
Jerkass | |
| Straight Time / int_eb8ec7c8 | comment |
Jerkass: Earl Frank is a condescending, sleazy Smug Snake who takes great joy in humiliating Max and is rather incompetent at his job to boot. | |
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Straight Time |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
| Straight Time | hasFeature |
Bait the Dog / int_f679d961 | |
| Straight Time | hasFeature |
Film Noir Index / int_f679d961 | |
| Straight Time | hasFeature |
Off-into-the-Distance Ending / int_f679d961 |
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Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.